The University of Wisconsin has decided to comply with the request from the Republican Party of Wisconsin seeking access to history professor William Cronon’s emails—but only after winnowing the database.
And only after issuing a statement in defense of academic freedom:
Scholars and scientists pursue knowledge by way of open intellectual exchange. Without a zone of privacy within which to conduct and protect their work, scholars would not be able to produce new knowledge or make life-enhancing discoveries. Lively, even heated and acrimonious debates over policy, campus and otherwise, as well as more narrowly defined disciplinary matters are essential elements of an intellectual environment and such debates are the very definition of the Wisconsin Idea. . .
To our faculty, I say: Continue to ask difficult questions, explore unpopular lines of thought and exercise your academic freedom, regardless of your point of view. As always, we will take our cue from the bronze plaque on the walls of Bascom Hall. It calls for the “continual and fearless sifting and winnowing” of ideas. It is our tradition, our defining value, and the way to a better society.
Would but that the administrations of all colleges and universities held themselves to such a standard.
[...] won recently at the University of Wisconsin and at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. In a ruling that breaks from other recent [...]
[...] with a strong defense of academic freedom, just as the University of Wisconsin publicly supported William Cronon back in [...]